Honour-based violence refers to a set of behaviours aimed at preserving or restoring family honour. It constitutes a form of gender-based violence that has gained increasing attention in Europe due to due to migration driven by globalisation. The Istanbul Convention and Directive (EU) 2014/1385 on combating violence against women call for a victim-centred response. To support this approach, it is essential to understand how young Europeans perceive the seriousness of these behaviours and what legal responses they consider appropriate. This study explores these perceptions through a cross-sectional online survey of 3,005 university students enrolled on undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programmes at eight universities in Catalonia (Spain). It examines how socio-demographic, situational and cognitive variables (including gender, religiosity, previous victimisation, and knowledge of HBV manifestations) shape attitudes towards severity, criminalisation and institutional responses. Respondents evaluated three scenarios depicting different HBV manifestations, ranging from forced marriage to controlling behaviours. Descriptive findings show that the majority of respondents perceive these behaviours as serious and criminal, particularly in scenarios involving physical violence or forced marriage. Regression models reveal that knowledge and gender are the strongest predictors of legal perceptions, followed by religiosity and victimisation in some cases. The results suggest that young people prefer victim-centred approaches to punitive measures. These findings enhance understanding of legal perceptions of honour-based violence and offer empirical evidence to support culturally sensitive and legally coherent public policies aligned with international and EU standards.
Villacampa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.